MEMBERS OF FIRST AND LAST APOLLO MISSIONS
TO THE MOON TO PARTICIPATE IN LUNAR BASE SYMPOSIUM

(Los Angeles, CA) -- June 17 -- The National Space Society and
the Space Frontier Foundation announced today that Apollo
astronauts Dr. Buzz Aldrin (Apollo 11), Dr. Harrison Schmitt
(Apollo 17), and John Young (Apollo 10) will join other space
leaders, entrepreneurs and lunar advocates in Houston, Texas on
July 15-16, 1999 to lay the groundwork for a permanent human return
to the Moon. The "Lunar Base Development Symposium", the first of
its kind, is designed to begin crafting the elements of a business
plan leading to the construction of a commercially viable lunar
base within the next ten years. Honorary Co-chairpersons will be
House Space Subcommittee Chairman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), Space
Subcommittee member Dick Lampson (D-TX) and Lunar Prospector
Principal Investigator Dr. Alan Binder.

"Imagine a Mars training base in a crater next to a Lunar Hilton
Hotel", said Pat Dasch, Executive Director of the National Space
Society, which is a co-organizer of the symposium. "Scientists
operating the NASA facility would live side by side with
astronomers operating far-side observatories and prospectors mining
Helium-3. Roll in the space tourism and entertainment industries
and we have a lunar community."

The Society's members have created the Center For Lunar Research
to help return humans to the Moon in the 21st Century and build
upon the historic legacy of the Apollo program. From being a place
to train future planetary explorers to providing a stable platform
for giant new telescope arrays, from its vast stores of nearly
priceless Helium-3 to becoming an eventual tourist destination, the
Moon represents a strong "next step" for humanity in space.

The event planners believe that it also represents a chance for
a new synergy between government and the private sector.

"Some say the Moon was abandoned after Apollo, but we see that
as an opportunity," stated Space Frontier Foundation president Rick
Tumlinson. "The Moon is now a clean slate, and it's close enough to
the Earth for private firms to play a big role there. We think we
can create a critical mass to make a return to the Moon not only
possible, but profitable."

The event, to be held in cooperation with the NASA Johnson Space
Center, is being sponsored by the Foundation for the International
Non-governmental Development of Space (FINDS). Other sponsors
include Applied Space Resources, the Lunar Resources Company, the
Lunar Reclamation Society, LunaCorp, the Lunar Research Institute,
and the Space Studies Institute.

The National Space Society, founded in 1974, is an independent,
nonprofit space advocacy organization headquartered in Washington,
DC. Its 20,000 members and 75 chapters around the world actively
promote a spacefaring civilization.

The Space Frontier Foundation is a grass-roots organization of
people dedicated to opening the space frontier to human settlement
as rapidly as possible.

For more information on the Lunar Base Development Symposium,
visit the http://www.nss.org/, send email to nsshq@nss.org, or call
202-543-1900.